Potential antimalarial activity of Methyl Jasmonate and its effect on lipid profiles in Plasmodium Berghei infected mice.

BACKGROUND The antimalarial activity and lipid profiles of Methyl Jasmonate (MJ) were investigated against established malaria infection in vivo using BALB/c mice. METHODS Arteether (AE) and chloroquine (CQ) were used as reference drugs while ethanol was used as the vehicle for drug delivery for MJ. RESULTS Mice treated with 10 and 25 mg/kg MJ showed a remarkable reduction in percentage parasitemia by 68.3% and 78.2% on day 10(post treatment) respectively while 45.4% and 87.2% reduction in percentage parasitemia were observed in the group treated with 50 mg/kg on day 3 and 10 (post treatment) respectively. The highest mean survival time was observed in CQ followed by AE and MJ in dose-dependent manner. A progressive decrease in packed cell volume (PCV) was observed in infected untreated mice which led to the death of all the mice by day 9 (post treatment). Infected mice treated with MJ showed reduced level of HDL and LDL compared with infected untreated group. As the dose of MJ increased in infected mice cholesterol levels increased while there was reduction in triglyceride. CONCLUSION Overall there was marked decrease in parasitemia in Plasmodium berghei infected mice treated with graded doses of MJ but appears to have reduced antimalarial activity compared with CQ and AE.